Chapter 5
James and Lily had a lot to talk about during the three days that Harry had been asleep since he got there, and Lily was by all accounts shocked by the news that they had Harry back, all while sad for the fact that this Harry never got to know them and worried that he would not want to be here. Sad again that according to all the research that Milly and her colleagues had done, there was no way to travel back to a world you had already left.
With the way that the portal was structured, the best way to explain it would be a stream of energy. The amount of magical power that it took to travel downstream, which is what Harry had done, was more than most full-grown wizards or witches possessed. To attempt to travel upstream was simply impossible. There would be no way to survive the amount of power it took; even Merlin himself would run the risk of becoming an obscuriual.
They also had to tell Mark, which was challenging in itself. It was an incredibly life-altering shock for the eight-year-old. He had known about his older brother with his dad’s hair and mums’ eyes, who was such a sweet baby so often that he often felt that he knew Harry even though he had died almost eight years before Mark was born. After his parents finished explaining that while this was still Harry, he had gone through many different experiences than he would have had he grown up like Mark did, he decided that he would be the one to make Harry comfortable and even enjoy this new chance like any young child would want to do.
James and Lily were concerned for Harry; he was tiny for his age, looking more like 12 than 15. Not to mention the things that were shown on the diagnostic scan, such as years of malnutrition, multiple exposures to the cruciatus curse, and close to 6 previously broken bones. With James working as an Auror and Lily working at the local primary school, both had worked with enough abuse cases for even just one of these occurrences to cause several red flags. The doctors told them that, more than likely, Harry would not wake up for at least a week due to the amount of magic that he expended to survive the travel between the worlds.
Therefore, both of them were so surprised when he jumped out of the bed after only sleeping for three days and held a wand at them, threatening them for impersonating themselves.
Lily, surprisingly was the first one to get her bearings and explain what all was going on and how he ended up in their world, finishing by saying, “we are willing to answer any questions that you may have to help you to believe us.”
Harry felt like the world around him was shattering at this moment, so he said the only thing that he could think of at that moment, “Okay, if you are who you say you are, and this is all real, then turn into Prongs.”
After James changed his form, the relief in Harry’s eyes was visible to all in the room. Harry suddenly went pale and lept towards James once he changed back. Unsurprisingly he passed out in James’s arms, but the thing that did surprise his parents was the fact that even after he was asleep, his hands never unclung from James’s shirt like he subconsciously thought that they would disappear if he did not hold onto them. So instead of prying Harry’s hands off him because the idea of letting Harry go broke his heart to even consider, James just laid down with Harry and held him close.